Roy Sykora grew up in Melrose Park and attended the Proviso High School there, playing on the school’s Varsity Letter Hillside football team. After completing his studies, he enlisted as an Aviation Cadet in the Air Corps. He was in the Montana State College training detachment at Bozeman, Montana before following pre-flight training at the Santa Ana, California Army Air Base. Then it was gunnery school at Kingsman, Arizona, before he was transferred to the Hondo Army Airfield in Texas where he had a four-month course in advanced aerial navigation. After receiving an Army Air Forces commission as a 2nd Lt, he was sent overseas in the summer of 1944. Roy was assigned to the 486th Bomb Group / 833rd Bomb Squadron in England. A navigator, he was flying his second mission on B-17 “The Last Roundup” # 43-37927 on the 6 December 1944 mission to Merseburg, Germany. The B-17 was hit by Flak and crashed near Ijmuiden, The Netherlands. Roy Sykora and the 8 other crew members were killed. Missing Air Crew Report – MACR 11048. Roy Sykora is still listed as Missing In Action and has no known grave.